Published by the Joint Action of The
Assyrian National Federation and The Assyrian National League of
America - 1758 North Park Avenue, Chicago IL (Books may be secured by
application of this address only)

First published in 1935. Copyright 1936 By the Author

No part of the book may be reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission. All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America, The Kimball
Press, Warren Point, N.J.

Dedicated to the Assyrian People in commemoration of
the Assyrians who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Iraqi
Government. Y.M.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The atrocities deliberately perpetrated
by the forces of Faisal, the puppet king on a shaky throne, led by
their ill-bred officers against the Assyrians in Iraq during August
1933, the month that should mark a black spot in British history, have
necessarily accelerated the publication--as an urgent necessity--of a
part of a comprehensive book on the Iraqi minorities which I have in
view. The British Government has betrayed, and has certainly proved
herself unworthy of, the trust that other Eastern peoples have placed
in her. She received many warnings as to the precarious position of the
Iraq minorities in an emancipated Iraq, but it continued to ignore the
appeals made to it and set aside the apprehensions felt even by the
members of the Permanent Mandates Commission.

Though unfortunately the Assyrian men, women, and
children, who, in defence of their very honor, have been most brutally
massacred with the usual Arab savagery, are lamentably and
irretrievably lost, yet it is not too late to save the remnant if only
as a monument to British perfidy and injustice. This is not impossible.
It is incumbent upon the leaders who, rightly or wrongly, placed their
"implicit trust" in the British Government and British liberal, to mend
their ways.

I am not cognizant of the circumstances that led the
Assyrian leaders at the time to be swayed by the British policy but the
blood of our martyrs who have fallen victims to the "implicit trust"
and that villainous policy, is loudly crying to save those who are in
the lion's mouth. The Assyrian people who have been sorely tried for
the last nineteen years (1915-1933) and have encountered many bitter
tribulations, want and need a stable and honest policy that can offer
it a real, permanent peace and security, which, in the last sixteen
years (1918-1933) of trial has been definitely proved impossible under
the British domination.

In April 1933, I attempted to return to Iraq and had
to see Sir Harold Stow, the British Consul-General of Betroth. He was
kind enough to advise me to do so, but, at the same time, he
communicated with the Iraqi Consul-General of Betroth, Camilla al
Galena, to say that it would be in the interests of Iraq if I were
allowed to return when the Iraq Government could place me under strict
policy surveillance. I subsequently approached the Iraqi Consul in
writing on the 15th of April and he, after having communicated with
Badgered, sent me a letter No. 622/4/12 dated 22-5-33, the translation
of which I append herewith:

"The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has, in letter No.
3711, dated 3rd May, 1933, informed me that the Iraq Government cannot
accede to the requests embodied in your application, but it can confirm
that no legal action will be taken against you for your past
prejudicial activities against the interests of Iraq."

This sounds very nice; but what about "illegal
actions" so common in Iraq? The requests embodied in my application to
which the Iraqi Consul makes reference, and to which the Iraqi
Government could not accede, included a request for my personal safety
and liberty while in Iraq. Upon further inquiry, the Consul on the 8th
of June, 1933, informed me that he could give me no particulars other
than those contained in his letter No. 622/4/12, dated the 22nd of May,
1933, which meant nothing to me because of its vagueness and ambiguity.
Sir SAT's recommendation, presumably made bona fide, was that I
be permitted to return to Iraq under the understanding that I was to be
placed under "strict police surveillance." I discovered this from the
Iraq Consul himself who was kind enough to furnish me with copies of
his correspondence with Baghdad.

I have quoted this minor case to illustrate the value
of the League of Nations paper guarantees in Iraq for "the full
protection of life and property of the Iraq minorities", and to show
how impossible it is for the members of the Iraq minorities, Chaldeans
and others included, to approach the League of Nations and report the
daily violations of the paper guarantees by the Iraq Government,
however grave and acute such violations may be, without exposing
themselves to reprisals.

The pronounced policy of the Iraq Government clearly
aims at the destruction and extinction of the Assyrian race by merging
it forcibly in the body politic of Iraq.

In the face of the recent atrocities (and more are
probably to follow) committed against the Assyrian men, women, and
children, against all laws of civilization in Iraq, and particularly in
the Mosul Liwa, by the armed forces of the Iraq Government for which
preparations were being made some months previously, England remained a
mere observer, and her "moral responsibility" undertaken at Geneva
through the medium of Sir Francis Humphrys, her accredited
representative, proved, as we constantly maintained in writing and
otherwise, not to be worth the paper upon which it was recorded. In his
last day, Sir Francis will have something on his conscience. We were
betrayed by England on every possible occasion, and were finally handed
over to a so-called Arab Government, without adequate or reasonable
safeguards for our safety.

Our grievances and claims have been deliberately
misrepresented as I informed, (through the kind favour of Mr. George
Naqqash, the brilliant Lebanese writer Mr. Rennie Smith of the
Inter-parliamentary Union, London, from beginning to end, and it is the
firm belief of many, as well as mine, that more misrepresentations will
follow; hence there is the absolute necessity for the present work.

As an Assyro-Chaldean by nationality, and one of the
indigenous inhabitants from the heart of Mosul, with thirteen years of
continuous experience of the Iraqi government and the British
officials, I claim the right of being able to state our side of the
case. Living in exile for the last twenty-nine months (April
1931-August 1933) with no possible access to my documents, I regret
that I shall not be able to produce a comprehensive book as I
originally desired. But my memory has not failed me, and will not, I
hope, do so now. I hope that the present work will serve to give the
readers, and particularly those interested in the Assyrians, a general
idea as to the recent events leading up to the barbarous acts committed
by the regular armed forces of the Iraq Government against the peaceful
Assyrian civil population.

Chapter I has been written by the
Assyrian National League of America. Chapter V has been written by Col.
F. Cunliffe-Owen. Chapters VII and second half of Chapter X have been
written by Dr. David B. Perley. The indexing is also his work. Chapter
XIII has been contributed by Col J.J. McCarthy. I am indebted to them
all for their valuable services.

For permission to re-publish Lt.-Gol.A.T. Wilson's'
excellent Crisis in Iraq, originally published in the Nineteenth
Century & After Review of October 1933, I am indebted to the
author and to the publishers, Constable & Company, Limited, 10-12
Orange Street, London, W.C.2.

For the reading of the galley proof, I am indebted to
Mrs. D. B. Perley of New Jersey and Mr. George K. Eshaya of Illinois.
For the reading of the page proof I am again indebted to the former.
For the excellent illustrations, I am indebted to Mr. George Mardinly
and to Mr. Lutfi Dartley, more especially to Mr. Charles S. Dartley,
all of the State of New Jersey, U.S.A.

It is a pleasing duty to express my sincere thanks to
Hon. Nicholas O. Beery, the ex-Police Court Judge and Prosecutor of the
Pleas of Passaic County in New Jersey, for his generous assistance
rendered in reading and correcting every page of proof as it came from
the compositor, and for his counsel with regard to matters of general
presentation. My thanks are due also to the generous scholars, such as
Max Zucker, Esquire, Rabbi and Lawyer, Judge Joseph A. Furrey, Joseph
J. Durna, an attorney of New Jersey, and Prof. E.J. James, B.D., Ph.D
of Chicago who have improved the book by their suggestions and
painstaking criticism.

It is gratifying to acknowledge my supreme obligation
to the Assyrian National League of America and to the Assyrian National
Federation* in America. The latter is composed of the Assyrian National
Union, Inc. of Massachusetts, the Assyrian National Association of
Connecticut, the Christian Aid Society of Philadelphia, Pa., the West
New York Branch of New Jersey, the Newark Branch of New Jersey. Had it
not been for their zealous co-operation, the present work would not
have been possible.1

1--In the Annual
Convention of the Federation held in Yonkers, New York on the 26th and
27th of October 1935, the National League of America was declared
affiliated with the Assyrian National Federation. The National
Association of Yonkers, whose membership was for some time held in
abeyance, was so so affiliated. The convention resulted in the election
of Joseph J. Durna, LL.B., as its third president, succeeding David B.
Perly.